Jun 10, 2013

My second look at Vectorworks Nomad, part ii

After installing Nomad from the Google store on my Android tablet, I signed in using my complimentary subscription account:

User Interface

Once signed in, I saw this list of drawings. (Sample drawings provided by Vectorworks.)

I picked one drawing, and then a few moments later it appeared on the screen. A button on the upper right opened all the sheets included with the drawing (see the list of thumbnails on the right.)

Along the bottom of the screen is a short tool bar that switches modes between viewing, redlining, and measuring (left to right). In the figure above, I opened the redlining mode, and you can see the buttons available: add a note, draw freehand, add text, draw a line, draw a square-rectangle, or draw a circle-oval -- all in red.

Measurement mode measures distances (two picks), angles (three picks), and areas (four picks). As my finger moved around to find the start of a measurement point, a magnifying glass showed the drawing elements under my finger (see figure below). Each vertex of a measurement vector had a handle for me to edit the location. In the lower left corner, Nomad reported the length, angle, and/or area. There is no way to export the measurements, and they disappear from the screen with the next action.

Viewing mode does zooming (double-tap or spread two fingers) and panning (one-finger drag). View quality is good: as I zoomed in, the image was fuzzy for a moment, and then cleared up so that I could see details. Viewing and loading times are excellent, even on my older dual-core Android.

Sharing

A sign of openness is if a mobile app allows links to external services, such as email or Dropbox. I tapped the Share button, and up popped this list of options:

This not the list an Android user usually sees, and so I'll explain the meaning of the options:

Share Link to a Server PDF File -- generates a link to the PDF that looks like this: http://cloud.vectorworks.net/portal/link/cxxxe-cxx0-1x2-bxx6-12xxxxxxx94f. The file opens in the recipient's browser using the PDF viewer; no password or account is needed. All sheets associated with the drawing are in the PDF. Links expire after two weeks.

Share Link to a Server VWX File -- same, but the link is to the original Vectorworks drawing file, and when I click on it, my Web browser prompts me to save the ZIP file to disk on my desktop computer.

Share Links to both PDF and VWX Files -- same, but generates two links, one to each file format

Share as File Attachment -- as below.

After choosing one of the options, Nomad then displays the menu Android users expect to see:

The list varies depending on the utilities installed on the Android, but here is what the ones in the figure would do:

Add a subscription (through gReader, a Google Reader replacement) -- didn't work for me. If it did, then maybe I'd get RSS notifications?

Add to Dropbox -- uploads the file to my Dropbox account.

AquaMail (a GMail replacement) and Outlook.com -- email the file.

Bluetooth -- transfers the file to a nearby device, such as my cellphone.

Of this list, I am likely to use Dropbox primarily and AquaMail secondarily. (After the PRISM revelations, I might want to only use WiFi direct and Bluetooth!)

Preferences

Here is the Preferences screen, which is brief, thankfully:

Web Site

In the Preferences dialog box, the Open Your Cloud account option takes me to my account at Vectoworks' Web site (using the Android browser), which also displays the drawings I have hosted there. As I noted earlier, this is much nicer looking than the equivalent Dropbox provides:

It's a bit too subtle, but to select a file, tap the nearly-invisible square in the lower right corner of a thumbnail. Then you can delete or email the file(s). Tapping the New option prompts me to choose a file to upload to the Web page: VWX, TIFF (raster images), or OTF (open type font); presumably this is meant to work from my desktop computer, and not a tablet, which would not have these file types normally.

What Nomad Doesn't Do

In my April review, I wished that Vectorworks would let potential users access Nomad without an account; they could be limited to the three or four sample files. Vectorworks told me they are thinking about it.

Nomad doesn't do 3D. It will not let me erase or rename files; this is best left for the Web page.

There is no caching, so that each time I went to the file list page, or reopened a drawing, Nomad downloaded the data from the Vectorworks server. This is to ensure users in the field access the latest version.

Nomad crashed on me several times, but restarted immediately. I am not too concerned about this, because even GMail and Maps crash on my Android tablet (one reason I swtiched to non-crashing AquaMail).

Footnotes

Vectorworks provided me with the subscription account free, as well as a free copy of Vectorworks 2013. I reviewed the software on my ASUS Transformer TF-101 tablet running Android 4.1, which I paid for.